The hidden history found in your teeth

Visit the American Museum of Natural History and see the humans migrated through time across the globe. The world’s population has reached 1 billion people over the past 200,000+ years that Homo sapiens have existed. See how our ancestors populated the continents over time.

This two minute video and other resources explain one of the most important movements of people in American history: the forced migration of millions of Africans to North and South America. Link to more information on the voyages and lives of the people who survived them.

The United States has more immigrants than anywhere in the world, according to the Pew Research Center. Read about where they come from and see how perceptions – and misconceptions – about migrants line up with up-to-date information collected by migration researchers.

Use this interactive map on the Migration Data Portal to understand global migrant flows, where forced migrations are occurring, and find answers to migration policies around the world.

This book frames the Great Migration, when thousands of African Americans left the south for northern cities, using the stories of three people. It is a long read (623 pages), but beautifully told and meticulously researched. It is particularly relevant today when the children of many of these migrants, and the migrants themselves, are returning to southern cities in another great demographic shift in the United States.

The journey of migrants traveling hundreds of miles in Mexico to reach the US is harrowing, but true, and an incredible story originally written in Spanish (La Bestia). They travel at night, hop onto moving trains, and risk their lives to try and find one a better one. Their hope is palpable, and the words jump off the pages to bring their experiences to life from multiple perspectives.

This overview of migration to the US is told by an anthropologist who combines interviews and observations with archaeology and forensics to understand migrants’ lives and how they are affected by US border policies. He describes finding the body of a young woman in the desert as he documented sites with his students, and a search for her identity that brought him to Ecuador. The book is open access through multiple platforms.